Hello, I'm a young man out to write the best science fiction novels I can, as such I try to take in as much factual data and theory into my writing to make it feel a little more acceptable. I also love to have outside input and plenty of inspiration when I write something so I'm asking for a little bit of input on the following questions.

1) What would happen to a being from an environment of high gravity if it came to our planet? Say some species is visiting us from a planet much larger than our own, would they seem superhuman to us, could they toss cars about like paper weights or would their bodies not function normally?

2) Say an alien vessel appeared over Earth tomorrow, who would be the first people to try an initiate communication officially on behalf of mankind? The Scientific community? The United Nations? I read that document about contact via SETI but I'm certain things would change if there was a very large ship in plain sight of pretty much everybody?

__________________
wisdom is not given, it is earned

Same here.That's why I like this place. Beings from high gravity planets would need to have strong legs and skeletal structure, and strong arms or the equivalent if they want to manipulate obects in a high gravity environment. They would probably have very fast reflexes too, as a falling object will move much faster and with more force. There must be a limit as to how much gravity the humanoid frame can stand- our backs would be the weak link there, but maybe a better design could withstand more weight. I would guess that most beings from higher gee worlds would have several legs, and very strong but short arms or the equivalent (perhaps using their mouths or a trunk [or several] instead). Another variable is the atmosphere- higher gravity worlds tend to have thicker atmospheres, but it may be the case that the existence of a biosphere affects the thickness of a planet's atmosphere, just as it has on Earth. Without a biosphere our planet might have a thick, Venus-like covering. Do you mean this one?
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/D/Declar.html
There are no binding agreements, so I would expect the people with the biggest transmitters to send messages all at once. The poor etees would be bombarded with a wave of pompous gibberish.

__________________
Orion's Arm . The Starlark . Voices: Future Tense . OA Flickr set

There ought to be a specific SUB FORUM for Sci-Fi writers to get technical advice. I am a sci-fi writer wanna be too. When my book is published, I would credit this site, and make a sizable donation to some charity in the name of this site. This is such an amazing resource.

Man, that's a good way to get ourselves killed.

I always worry that we broadcast one word that sounds similar to something very offensive to them and bring down the thunder on ourselves.

__________________
wisdom is not given, it is earned

Well I support the idea.

__________________
wisdom is not given, it is earned

It's likely any ET intelligent enough to travel between solar systems would understand that other races probably don't speak the same language as them.

How do you know they would even have a skeletal structure? Or legs?

A rose by any other name.

Good point. Let's consider some alternatives to skeletal structure, first.

The aliens might be shapeless masses of cells, something like a slime-mold; I have suspected for a while that semi-organised masses like that might be capable of complex organisation and even intelligence. Slime molds would not have much problem with gravity, as long as they don't get too big. And they wouldn't be able to lift anything heavy, at least not in the way that we lift objects.

Alternately they might have fluid-filled hydrostatic structures inside their bodies- specially shaped balloons which can be filled with high pressure fluid at will. This might be a more flexible arrangement than a rigid, immutable skeleton. But in a high-gee environment these structures would need to be proportionately larger - resulting, I should think, in a very bulgy looking creature when these hydrostatic structures are fully inflated. A fascinating prospect.

Alternatives to legs- well, the creatures could be completely worm-shaped, or snakelike; this might limit their activities somewhat, but it is possible to imagine a tube-worm analogue with manipulative organs at one, or both ends. In a high-gee environment these worms would probably remain near the ground, rarely raising their heads and appendages into the heavy air.

Or they could have a single muscular foot- like a snail. Giant high-gravity snails - another intriguing image.

__________________
Orion's Arm . The Starlark . Voices: Future Tense . OA Flickr set

Or they could be aquatic and size and weight not be an issue.

Nick

__________________
Nick Theodorakis

Even aquatic animals are restricted by size and weight in some aspects... are they not?

The greatest setback, despite the massive amounts of resources need to travel to another star system, is the fact our atmosphere will probably be poisonous to them and our biology may be deadly to them (remember what happened to the poor colonists in War of the Worlds).

2. The Americans would. Who better to speak for Earth than the most powerfulest and richest nation? Also, everyone and their grandmother with a radio will try to communicate with them.

__________________
Fields of Space

LOGIC, n.
The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.

In the Year 2525.

"One small step for (a) man. One giant leap for mankind".

If an astronaut doesn't need good grammar, niether does you.

Host of Seraphim

An American.
I seriously doubt that the Government of the USA would mobilize in time. My guess is that it will be whoever is sitting behind the dials of those big dishes in Arizona.

I don't know; are they? If they were of neutral bouyancy I don't see why weight should be a factor. I'm not sure size would be a primary factor, either, but there may be a host of secondary factors associated with size (e.g., can it take in enough food through whatever it uses as a mouth to feed itself, can it circulate it's body fluids fast enough, etc.).

Nick

__________________
Nick Theodorakis

Aquatic creatures are not entirely isolated from the effects of gravity. Fish must at the very least be able to detect their orientation in a gravity field, as shown by a experiment on Skylab
http://history.nasa.gov/SP-401/ch17.htm
The otolith is the fish's inner ear bone; in zero gee these fish were told by their inner ears that they were falling, so they swam 'upwards'.

__________________
Orion's Arm . The Starlark . Voices: Future Tense . OA Flickr set

This post by Grant Hutchison gives some good info about the effects of high gravity on a creature in water
Water in space...what happens?
Air breathing creatures like whales and dolphins would have difficulty in very high gravity, it seems, but maybe a couple of gees (as found on a large waterworld, for instance) would not be too bad.

__________________
Orion's Arm . The Starlark . Voices: Future Tense . OA Flickr set

Like in Contact? Those dishes are in New Mexico.

Thanks a bundle for all the replies everybody.

__________________
wisdom is not given, it is earned